Live and die, and then... [open]

[distant_one]

Who: D, his Left Hand, anyone
What: Open and closed prompts for general June catch all
When: early june and onward
Where: Various places

Content Warnings:: mention of blood drinking, apathy towards violence, casual disregard for the safety of others, violence, additional warnings to be added to closed prompts in comments



1. A stiff drink; any time in June, especially after the wilderness expedition returns; open

The end of the previous month had brought an end to D's excessive bloodthirst. Which meant that he could once again drink alcohol without experiencing an almost painful and intensely bitter disappointment at every drop that passed his lips and wasn't blood.

He was still not a very social person, but could be found in various drinking establishments around the city, slowly making his way through the wide variety of unfamiliar alcohol. His usual habit was to order the strongest drinks on offer and work his way down from there.

2. A bloodless cut; two weeks before the end of June; open

D wasn't one to get involved in the affairs of others. Drunken brawls simply weren't his concern, and even when one escalated immediately to a lethal level and had people fleeing, D only glanced over briefly to see why everyone was screaming and running.

This was more than just a drunken argument getting out of hand, but apparently a case of corruption. The corrupted man was apparently not satisfied yet either, as he was lunging at the next nearest person with a jagged piece of wood from a broken chair.

Though he was half way across the room, D was suddenly next to the man in the blink of an eye. Before the sound of his sword being drawn could completely fade from the air his first slash had cut through the weapon, turning it from sharp enough to stab to a blunt end. The second slash, even faster and seeming no more than an arc of silvery light passed through the man's torso before he could stab the newly blunt end of his improvised weapon into his target.

Despite the arc of the slash that should've cut the man in half, he didn't even stumble. The man jabbed his newly blunted weapon against his target, only to realize it was no longer suitable for stabbing. D is the next target of his ire, the remaining stub of chair leg swung at him like a club was caught in D's left hand.

It was a waiting game now, to see how long it would take a corrupted person to drop from the very unusual slash he'd made that hadn't broken the skin or spilled a single drop of blood.

3. Wildcard

Comments

[democratically]

"Mm. Their head, no doubt." As there have been some times when Padmé had drank a bit more than she should have. Not often, and not in public, but it had happened. She still nursed her cup, before asking. "... drinking to drown some sorrows, or just have a hankering to sample drinks?"

[distant_one]

"Drowning sorrows doesn't work, at best you just forget how miserable you were while you were drunk. They don't serve my drink, the closest I've found so far is called absinthe but they serve it with sugar of all things."

D didn't share the same fondness of sugary things that humans had. His taste buds were too vampiric for it to be pleasant. The mix of an otherwise almost pleasant alcohol with sugar was almost an affront to his unusual preferences.

[democratically]

"No. I find approaching them head on, while painful, does do the job." Although Padmé does have that force of will to stand up for what she believes in, consequences aside. It may have given her some troubles in the past, but she wouldn't change. "I'm not familiar with that one either. It doesn't come without the sugar?"

[distant_one]

"They refused to serve it to me any other way." Left Hand was still unhappy about that, but D supposed if it was some kind of tradition he could understand.

"It's a very distinct clear green."

[democratically]

That had her pausing for a moment, wondering why that was. It did not seem like an outlandish thing to ask for. Padmé would only be able to take a shot in the dark if she were to guess. Some purity to the recipe? “I don’t suppose you could ask for the ingredients separately and make your own?”

[distant_one]

"If I find it somewhere else, I will."

Left Hand had gotten them kicked out of that particular establishment, and D wasn't too upset over the loss of someone who refused to serve a drink any way except the traditional manner. "Some people get very upset over little things."

[democratically]

"The sugar being the only little thing they got upset over?" Or was there more of a story there. Padmé did not know him well enough to say one way or the other, or even if he might give an answer that wasn't true.

[distant_one]

A small voice spoke up from around D's left hand, the voice hoarse and clearly not D's. "He was a real stuck up kill joy. Said it was a waste to drink it any other way and to do otherwise is an insult to the craft of brewery."

For his part, D did nothing to contradict the small voice. "My drinking partner may have insulted his ability to hold his alcohol."

[democratically]

At the voice, Padmé did find herself looking for the source of it. His mouth didn't seem to be moving, unless he was throwing it for some reason. The curiosity remained as her eyes lingered for a moment, trying to pinpoint who or what was speaking, but returned back toward him once he started again. "Ah. That would do it then with some."

[distant_one]

While his Left Hand would sometimes claim D as a ventriloquist, D was relieved he'd mostly given up that particular joke. But he wasn't in any hurry to encourage his Left Hand to continue talking by bringing him into the conversation any further.

"If they had my preferred drink I might consider it a loss." D was accustomed to being kicked out, refused service, or chased out of town as it was. "And you, are you just out for a relaxing drink or are you searching for something?"

[democratically]

"I might say I'm always searching for something, but nothing in particular this evening." Unwinding, if anything. It is far less stressful in some ways here, as there are no worries about the senate and bills or committees. On the other hand, this place has it's own issues. "Padmé Amidala. I'm used to hecticness, but not quite of this type that we seem to find ourselves in."

[distant_one]

"I'd say there are very few who aren't searching for something. Most don't go looking for it in bars," D observed, looking around the room. The only thing that could be found in a bar was a little bit of diversion and a lot of trouble.

"Call me D. The place I'm from is very similar to this."

[democratically]

"Sometimes you find things in the most unusual of places..." Not that she had ever really found anything in a bar. Padmé had rarely gone to them. "Where I'm from is quite different. We travel through space, although I'm a Senator, so I am typically on Coruscant- that is where the Senate is held. Other times back to my home planet, although not often enough, especially not with the conflict that is going on in the galaxy."

[distant_one]

"You'd think with a whole galaxy out there people would run out of things to fight over instead of just finding more." The Nobility had space travel, but their mystical tie to the Earth kept it from being too attractive to them.

"Being trapped in a single town like this must feel very stifling in comparison to the openness of space."

[democratically]

"One might hope that someday that may be the case, but I doubt I will see that in my lifetime." Rather, she knew that. The war might end, but she knew that was just the beginning of the next saga. "People are varied and diverse. Some cannot see beyond the scope of their own life."

Those who bring others down to rise themselves up were the ones that Padmé did not like. She gave a rueful smile. "Yes and no. There is still plenty that goes on, although I do miss my work in the Senate."

[distant_one]

"It's strange to say, but this place could use more organization." It was more like a group of various guilds settled in one place and just agreed to let mercenaries keep order. D was surprised things hadn't completely descended into chaos, but while the Pthumerians were a source of a lot of disorder they also seemed to serve as a balancing influence.

The constant threat of beasts helped as well. Nothing brought humanity together like a common enemy.

[democratically]

"It's a question of whether this place wants organization." That was half the battle most of the time, as otherwise one would be working against the current. There were places in the galaxy that had not been a part of the Republic. While not all had been hard or cruel places, there had been those that had been. "It would be nice though... But I am keeping otherwise occupied."

[distant_one]

"Yes. There's a word for unwanted organization. Several, in fact. Tyranny and oppression come to mind." And there were even more beyond that depending on the particular flavor of unwanted order.

D was also not in any rush to aid a move to remove the Pthumerians that lacked support from the Trench natives. This was their world, and they chose to worship the Pthumerian Patrons. Not all of them did, but enough that D wouldn't attempt to change that unless some extremely alarming new information came to light.

[democratically]

"There are a variety, depending on the situation... Or the circumstances. I know that democracy has it's flaws, as people can still band together of a like-mind and vote for their own selfish needs instead of the needs of the ones that they represent. But anything built under the scope of a dictatorship..." She gave a small shrug of her shoulders, pausing to take a drink. "I've always been for the people. Trying to go what is best overall. I could argue that you never make everyone truly happy."

[distant_one]

"Even with a much beloved and beneficial ruler, if people didn't want that kind of order it would crumble no matter how much it built or the intentions of those in charge." Many of the spectacular wonders of D's world were built under that guy's rule, so much art and technology that was lost when the Nobility were overthrown. D didn't mourn the Nobility, but he did mourn the loss of all their art and culture and technology.

Not everything they'd made had been terrible.

"Something being 'best overall' is often used to excuse terrible injustices and crimes to preserve the safety and peace of mind of larger groups against the misfortune of one or a few. The tyranny of the masses."

[democratically]

"True." There were some planets that she knew that it likely would happen like that. Not Naboo, mind, but it had a habit of voting in younger queens. Whether that worked in the planets favour or not was debatable. Padmé knew that some thought it meant that the queen would be malleable and easily cowed. Those would learn that was not the case.

"I've been blessed that that isn't the case on my planet. We... can still strive to be better, but we have made strides." Padmé hoped that they would continue to do so, not returning to an isolationism approach once more. Naboo had enough to share.

[distant_one]

"That's very fortunate. I don't have much experience with the politics between planets. The one other spacefaring species that found us went to war against us." And the signs of that war still littered Earth, with ancient weapons waiting to be woken up to do battle again.

Humans were lucky it had happened during Vampire rule with Vampires doing most of the fighting. Even then the way it ended couldn't be called a true victory.

[democratically]

"There's been a galaxy-wide war going on where I've been. Smaller conflicts over the years, but this is far grander." And doomed to fail, Padmé knew. The Republic would fall, and she'd be hearing it's last heartbeats soon, based on what she had learned from others. "Not that war is always bad, as sometimes where are reasons, but I would still always prefer negotiations. People always suffer when the fighting breaks out."

[distant_one]

"That's a very large war." War has covered the entirety of Earth more than once, but a war spanning not just a solar system but an entire galaxy must be something else.

"Just because it's necessary doesn't make it any less bad. The two aren't mutually exclusive." The idea of a war being 'good' is much more difficult than something that's bad but necessary. A good war is hard for D to imagine at all, what would such a thing even look like.

[democratically]

"One that arguably could have been avoided." Or rather it had been orchestrated according to what Padmé had learned here. Palpatine, a Sith lord? Why, she would have placed him with Binks on the likelihood of being a Sith.

"No. No it doesn't. Sometimes you have to fight for what you believe in, but I will always prefer to try the diplomatic approach first. Words can go a long way."